WALTER ALIBEY
Hayden Mitchell, new president of the Tennis Association of T&T is aiming at having a player from the twin-island republic in the top 150 ranked players in the world by 2026.
Less than a week after the staging of the Blink Bmobile National Open Tennis Championship at the Nelson Mandela Park in St Clair, Mitchell outlined a number of changes he said are necessary to achieve this and for local players to be competitive internationally, starting with the overall structure.
He explained taht T&T, is only comparable with countries internationally at the junior level, which is due largely to talent, but noted that we have faltered during our transition from junior to senior level.
To deal with this, the association has embarked on a grassroot development programme aimed at unearthing talent from remote areas. Mitchell said because of the huge costs involved in conducting these programme they have sought the assistance of corporate T&T.
The association has already secured the services of Atlantic in Point Fortin and Mitchell is calling on other corporate citizens to join their development drive by adopting other grassroot programmes. Mitchell and his new administration will also enter the nation's Primary Schools, focus on upgrading coaches and other officials and ensure the employment of a marketing personnel, who will focus on gaining sponsorships for the sport, as he feels this is critical if we are to pull ourselves away from the dependence on government for financial assistance.
"We have to make the sport attractive to parents to send their children to. Parents must see that by being in the sport their children can benefit, either by way of gaining scholarship or getting opportunities at becoming professional players where they can make a living from it" Mitchell explained.
He added "At the moment we have the University of T&T offering scholarships to tennis and other sportsmen and women, now we are working on getting the University of the West Indies (UWI) to offer scholarships also. In addition, our coaches must operate as professionals which means that we must make it sustainable for them and other officials"
He told the Guardian it is because of the lack of proper structure, local tennis has found itself lagging behind for many years. In drawing an anology Mitchell pointed to top under-14 junior players Aidan Carter, ranked number one in the region and his countryman Adam Ramkissoon who is ranked two in the region. He explained if proper structures are not in place before they are ready to enter seniors, they will not live up to their true potential.
According to Mitchell: "If you look at the difference in the education structure in the United States, young players can be self taught there, which means their transition from junior to senior level will not be interrupted by the amount of tennis that they play. In T&T however, we have a number of young players reducing the amount of tennis they play when they reach the CXC/CSEC level"
Mitchell also singled out the new tennis centre in Tacarigua, saying it will provide opportunities for increased participation at a high level. "What we can expect is to see tournaments as high as ATP being staged here and with it a number of top players to challenge our locals" Mitchell said.